19th September
by BarbaraKaterina
Summary: Hermione celebrates her 33th birthday...and her wish is fulfilled in an unexpected way. Warning: canon compliant! Sort-of complete.


_A/N: I'd just like to say that I don't own anything._

_It just didn't seem fair that I wrote a story for Severus' birthday and wouldn't write one for the other half of my favourite pairing. I imagine them wanting a very similar thing, so this was bound to end up resembling the one for Severus quite a bit. However, I didn't want to completely repeat myself, so this is not a SSHG, but my second favourite ship with Hermione. And as before, it's not a romantic pairing – for some reason, I like to stay more or less canon in these birthday one-shots. (This one will really be a one-shot, too, not like the previous attempt.)_

_This story takes place today, on 19th of September 2012. Happy 33th birthday, Hermione!_

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As Hermione Weasley was getting dressed on the morning of her birthday, she was absently thinking about a way of making this day special. They celebrated with the family last weekend, and they left the children with Molly and Arthur last night to have dinner with Ron. Thankfully, as he was leaving for work, he muttered a promise to pick them up on his way home, so she was free of that duty at least. Still...she always liked to do something special for herself on her birthday. The thing was, this year, she was out of ideas.

"Too much of a good thing, that's my problem," she muttered to herself as she was taming her hair in front of the mirror. There wasn't anything she really _wanted_. She had a happy life, a wonderful family, a job that satisfied her, and she was too impatient to wait and so always bought any book that interested her the moment she noticed it in a bookshop. She supposed she could stop by at Flourish and Blotts when returning from work, but she didn't have much hope – the last time she was there was on Sunday, to pick things she wanted to buy for all of the gift vouchers she got (the family finally understood there wasn't much point in trying to figure out which books she could be interested in), so how many interesting arrivals could there be in just three days?

Thinking about most of her family resorting to gift vouchers made her think of something she did want, though. She sighed and left the bathroom. Well, it just figured it'd be something she could hardly give herself, didn't it? As she checked her handbag for everything she would need at work, she amused herself by the idea of what would it be like if one could rent intellectual company just as one rented sexual one. She would be a constant visitor to such houses of pleasure, she knew. "Well, keep dreaming, girl," she told herself as she Disapparated.

Work was tedious that day. Her department was trying to draft a new law about self-defence she wanted to run by the centaurs as soon as possible, since they were the ones most likely to object – as open minded as she tried to be, Hermione couldn't help to think their ideas of what was adequate were preposterous – but it was going incredibly slowly, and to add insult to injury, her Senior Undersecretary left for maternity leave at the end of the summer, and the new one was impossible. "Couldn't he at least try on my birthday?" Hermione wondered.

In the midst of all that, her assistant entered her private office and said: "Mr. Malfoy is here to see you, m'am."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Did he give a reason?"

"No, just requested a private audience."

Hermione hesitated. She had a lot of work and no particular reason to put it aside for Draco Malfoy, but on the other hand, she wasn't getting on at all and she needed a break. The talk with him might as well serve for one, whatever it was he wanted.

"All right. Send him in," she said as she pushed the parchments on her desk aside.

He entered moments later, closed the door behind him and nodded in greeting. "Hello," she said, a bit awkwardly. It was always a bit awkward with him, since they never were precisely on first-name basis, but calling him Mr. Malfoy just sounded stupid. "Please, sit down. What can I do for you?"

"I heard you were working on a new law concerning self-defence," he said quietly.

Hermione inwardly groaned. Well, I can hardly throw him out because he didn't prove to be the distraction I hoped he would, can I? She thought.

"Yes?" She said, trying to sound encouraging.

"I'd like to get a chance to read it and tell you my opinion."

Hermione furrowed her brow. "Why?" A couple of years back, she'd have though he was just trying to gain back some influence. But he hadn't attempted anything much in that line for all those years, and just starting now, out of the blue, didn't seem all that likely. At the very least, there had to be something behind it.

"Because I used to be a Death Eater," he stated blandly.

Hermione stared. After a moment, she said weakly: "Care to specify?"

"I know what people need to protect from."

She stared some more, then blinked. "Malfoy," she resorted to the old way of calling him, "you do realize there have been Aurors working on this law, right?

"Yes. But how many of them have ever fought Death Eaters?"

Hermione tried to say something, but he interrupted her. "Potter and your husband, yes, and a couple more. Not much. And none of them were really...experienced in it. Forgive me for saying so, but Potter was mostly running around wildly, not knowing what he was doing, and getting by by luck and protection of stronger allies. Yes, you fought in the final battle, but it was all a big mishmash and I doubt you remember many particulars. All the experienced ones are dead. With the notable exception of the Minister, you know, but I'm afraid he doesn't have the time to read the law in detail and write his comments. You need people who know what the Death Eaters are capable of, in detail."

"But do we? The Death Eaters are all dead, too, or in prison."

He smiled a small mile utterly without mirth. "Again, with one notable exception."

"Yes, well, you can create a club with the Minister and remember the good old times, but that doesn't make it necessary for you to comment on the new law in detail. If the new bad guys are so much weaker than the old ones used to be, all the better for us, then, don't you think?"

"Granger," he said, so exasperated to regress to her maiden name, apparently, "your optimism astonishes me, after what you've been through. Yes, they're weaker _now_. It doesn't mean things won't get worse again in the future."

"In that case," Hermione argued, "we can adapt the law when that unpleasant future comes. We will know what we're dealing with, and so the law will be more functional, seeing that it will be responding to a current situation, not trying to predict according to the past."

"But there mightn't be a Ministry willing enough to make the changes when the time comes."

"I could hardly work here at all if I expected the Ministry to turn back into what it used to be in the next decade or so! What would be the point of all these reforms? I have to believe in this institution!" She was talking really loudly now, she realized, and tried to calm down.

Malfoy didn't say anything, just looked away from her.

"What?" She barked, uncharacteristically irritated. This isn't like me, she thought. Was it still the old school grudge resurfacing? She'd honestly thought she was past that already...

He was silent for a while, then said slowly: "It's just that I wondered that, too, many times."

"Wondered about what?"

"How can you work here."

"What do you mean?"

"You saw what Ministry is, you know it very well. How can you be a part of it?"

"If all the decent people say politics is too dirty for them, there are certainly going to be only bastards doing it. I did see what Ministry was, yes, but it isn't any more. We changed it."

He looked like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind.

"Say it," Hermione encouraged him.

He shook his head. "You wouldn't like it, and I honestly haven't come to argue today. Just...think about my...proposal." He rose to leave.

Hermione was already mentally preparing to return to her law, but found she didn't want to, and not just because the work was tedious and slow-going. "Wait," she said. He turned from the door, surprised. "I want to hear your opinion." She really did, which astonished even herself. But, Merlin damn it, this was her birthday and she was allowed to do what she wanted, be it unorthodox or not.

"On the law? You'll have to give me the draft to read through it..."

"No, not on the law, or at least not just on the law. I want to hear what you wanted to say right now. But you're right, it's probably not a professional situation anymore. Would you be too astonished if I said I'd leave work right now and we could go out for a coffee?"

He did seem to be much astonished indeed. Then he smirked. Hermione's hackles rose – she swore that if he made one joke about her cheating on Ron with him, she'd take her offer back quick smart.

But instead, he said: "Hermione Weasley leaving work early? You must be really curious." He paused, then added. "I agree, if only to see that eight world wonder."

She rolled her eyes at him, then took her cloak and hat off the rack, exited through the door he held open for her, and locked the office. "I'm leaving for today," she told her assistant, "so you may, too. Simply leave a note that I left earlier. No one's going to be bothered."

The girl blinked, confirming Malfoy's statement that such a thing was indeed unheard of, but Hermione ignored her and swept to the corridor and towards elevators.

Once in the Atrium, she turned to Malfoy and asked: "Would you object too much to going Muggle? I don't want to have reporters on us the moment we leave the building."

He frowned a bit, but nodded, and so they headed to the Muggle-world exit and transfigured their clothing just before stepping in.

They found a quiet café in Kensington and settled to a corner table, both going with the tradition and ordering tea. The time was just right for it, after all.

"What was it you wanted – or didn't want – to say, then?" Hermione finally asked when the waitress left.

"First things first," he said. "I want to get this sorted out once and for all. Could we agree on calling each other by our first names?"

"Okay...Draco."

"Good." He paused for a moment. "As for your question...I don't see how can you still believe, that's all. We didn't see the same things in the war, but fundamentally, we saw the same kind of things. How can you have any ideals left?"

Hermione was quiet for a long time. Draco grew gradually restless, then finally open his mouth to speak, but she raised her hand to stop him. "I'm thinking," she said.

After another while, she finally spoke. "I think it's because I never really lost any ideals, not the way you have. Of course I never knew before how bad can people be – not really _knew_, you know – but I always knew there were bad people. And I saw a lot of good come to light during the war, too, you know. The people on our side were dying, but they were willing to die for the cause. It was inspiring in a way. I saw so much bravery..." She hesitated. "You, on the other hand...I can't know what you felt, naturally, but the knowledge that your side were the bad guys must have been devastating. The people you saw showing bravery weren't the ones you had any ties to. That's very different."

He nodded. "You're right, though it's still more complicated than that. I did see some bravery on...my side, let's say, but it wasn't the shiny, glamorous bravery one could really tie one's hopes to. It didn't really inspire, it just made me more frightened. My mother went against Voldemort's express wishes and discussed my role during my sixth year with Severus to save me. She lied to Voldemort's face just to get a chance to see whether I am alright. That certainly is bravery, but it is bravery of someone driven to extremes by necessity.

"Or take Severus. He was absolutely, incredibly brave...and it was all a desperate attempt to right a mistake made in his youth, the same one I made. You can't really get inspired by this. You can admire it, but it doesn't give hope."

Hermione looked at him quietly for a minute, then asked with a soft emphasis: "How do you live?"

He shrugged. "For the small, everyday things I can still believe in. Funny as it is, in a way I never lost faith in my family. In the goodness of my parents, yes. But in the family in itself...not really."

"Yet you still care enough for wizarding Britain to want to write detailed comments to a prepared law?"

He smirked. "Well, of course it's partly self-interest, too. I don't want to end up in prison because I defended myself."

"From this point of view, all of us working at the Ministry are selfish. We all want to live in a better world."

His smirk broadened. "And so, the Slytherin and Gryffindor motivation stand united, like in times of the Founders."

And on this light note, they paid for their tea and parted their separate ways. Yet from that day on, when Hermione needed intellectual companionship, the only thing she needed to pay for was her cup of tea. And even that only because she insisted.

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_A/N: So? If there are any chapters following this, in will be on 19th Septembers to come. :)_

_And yes, I know their talk wasn't really all that intellectual. But, you know, Draco does have it in him...contrary to Ronald. :)_


End file.
